We The People: NGO That Promotes Recycled Products And Women Empowerment

When the Covid-19 pandemic shut down schools and colleges in March 2020, most urban teenagers switched to making reels about fancy food recipes or investing in DIY home projects to kill time.

Not 16-year-old Sameera Jalan. The teenager from Gora­kh­pur in Uttar Pradesh got busy thinking of ways to help other women. It all started when she noticed her domestic help, who lived with an abusive partner, struggling to make ends meet during the lockdown. “He did not work and claimed whatever money his wife earned. He also beat her up regularly,” Jalan recalls. Other working-class women in her locality—domestic workers, cooks, nannies, sweepers, shopkee­pers, vegetable sellers—also faced similar problems. If not a husband, it was an abusive partner or even a son.

“I realised these women had nowhere to turn to and no economic safety net to fall back on. On top of that, they silently bore the brunt of domestic violence through a medical emerge­ncy. I had to do something,” she told Outlook.

That’s how ‘PinThread’ took off, as an NGO that provided scores of wom­en in Gorakhpur with gainful employment at a time when corporations, governments, and even their own families turned against them. It had started as a concept for a school project.

The idea was simple and cost-effective: collecting rags and waste clothes and recycling them to create sustainable products for online sale. Raw material was donated and women worked voluntarily. And she used Instagram to fill the gap between producers and consumers.
“People liked the eco-friendly products and the stories of the women who made them and wanted to contribute. Once the money started flowing in, women started trusting me and in turn themselves,” Jalan says.

Now 18, Jalan claims that simply the will to do social good isn’t good enough. Diligence and research are essential too, in order to tide over obstacles.

The Covid-19 pandemic saw widespread job-loss and increased domestic violence cases against women pan-India. In Uttar Pradesh, the government had to launch an emergency helpline as well as a slogan “Suppress corona, not your voice” against domestic violence.
Jalan, however, feels that patriarchal attitudes that deny women education, agency and independence can only be broken by involving women themselves in decision-making processes concerning them.

“Once the women who were working with us started making money, they stopped putting up with their husbands’ misbehaviour and found a safe space among other women to discuss their problems. It’s not just about the money, they also found solidarity,” she adds.

Jalan is currently preparing for her Class XII examination and the PinThread project is now on hold for some time. But women associated with the initiative are now networked with bou­tiques and stores. The spirited student plans to get back to running the organisation full-throttle once her examinations are over. This time as a self-sustaining model of emp­l­oyment generation that can run without her as well.

(This appeared in the print edition as "Rags to Resilience")

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